The Hufflepuff who Lived
by The Middle Captain
Summary: Harry Potter is a lonely boy who longs for true friends, and becomes sorted into the Hufflepuff House.
1. Chapter 1

Harry James Potter was quite possibly the loneliest boy in Surrey. His 11 years in the tiny village of Little Whinging were as dreadful as any. He was constantly bullied at home by his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, in his school by his Cousin Dudley and his gang of troublemakers, and he was ostracized by the other children for all the strange occurrences that seemed to follow him. It didn't help that his Uncles forbade him from excelling or doing anything worthy of notice, and since his teachers viewed him as a moron, he didn't get any help from them.

* * *

It was quite surprising to him that he got a letter one day during breakfast, when he was supposed to be getting the mail. He avoided Dudley who was waving around a long stick and sneakily put it at the bottom of the mail stack. When he got to the door of his cupboard, he pretended to trip and fall. While Dudley giggled at his clumsiness he slipped the letter through the crack in his door.

* * *

Two days later, when Harry gathered up his courage, he walked into the kitchen and spoke aloud: "Am I a wizard?" Dudley's laughing could still be heard once Petunia shoo'd him too his room with the promise of biscuits. Vernon's face was a bright shade of crimson, and Petunia's was white as a sheet. Vernon looked at him with anger and fear in his eyes. "What did you say, Boy?"

* * *

After Rubeus Hagrid gave Dudley a tail, the two where flying through the water thanks to the silly umbrella the very large man had. Harry looked at it withinterest. "Er... Hagrid? When can I get an umbrella?"

* * *

Harry was confused. He had a new lease on life, some money in his pocket, and a wand and owl, but not any idea of how to get to Platform 9 3/4. An older woman along with four boys and a girl and **an owl**! He smiled and walked up to the group.

* * *

Ron Weasley was an interesting boy indeed. The boy was so very different from Harry that it surprised him they had anything to talk about over the delicious treacle tart and pumpkin pasties that Harry had purchased from the lady with the trolley.. Ron had looked at him quizzically when he enquired about a Mars Bar, and he had given the boy an odd look when he asked about the "chocolate frogs" it was an interesting conversation, and Ron asked about many things that were commonplace for Harry. When he said something about his father and aeroplanes, Harry took one of the chocolate frogs, and saw it jump out of it's box and away from him towards a window that Harry had opened after feeling a little ill from something called a "Cockroach Cluster". Harry didn't quite feel like eating the chocolates after one had made a successful break for freedom.

* * *

The girl that had recognized Harry was rather annoying. She had told Ron his spell was rubbish, and Ron wasn't speaking to the girl anymore, hastily scarfing the chocolate frog with his eyes now planted firmly at his feet. But the girl had some information on him, and seeing as how he was a celebrity, it didn't seem prudent to send her away. But thankfully, Harry didn't have to jeopardize his new friendship when a boy with a round face called the girl away. Harry forced a smile as Ron now steered the conversation to how weird the girls name was, and with very foul language, he didn't seem like the sort of person who would be a reliable friend to count on. Harry frowned and took a bite of his treats.

* * *

The boy was named Malfoy, and he was an odd antithesis to Ron. Ron was a loud-mouthed boy with little filtering, and a fierce Gryffindor supporter. Malfoy had a pride about him and was quicker with the tongue, but had a cruel streak and a fierce Slytherin support. Harry wasn't quite sure he wanted to associate with either of the houses.

* * *

"So, you aren't a fan of Gryffindor or Slytherin? I am very perplexed. Those houses would catapult you towards your destiny Mr. Potter. Well if you are dead set against them both, then your only options are Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. Not exactly the brightest boy are you? You're a lonely soul, cunning, but a bit dim. Shame about Slytherin, would have made you powerful. No? Still? Well then, I suppose it must be-

* * *

"Potter, Harry!" Yelled Professor McGonagall.

* * *

The small bespectacled boy trudged towards the stool and the singing hat with hesitance, wondering if the rumors he had heard from Ron were true, and listening to choruses of "Harry Potter?" and "Him? Here?" and "Harry Potter? The Boy who Lived?"

Harry put the hat on and a moment later the hat shouted "HUFFLEPUFF!"

* * *

A/N: It begins. I have a few liberties in this fic, namely Tonks is in fourth year, and so is Cedric Diggory. I have nothing against Remus, but I have big plans for this story.


	2. Chapter 2

Once Harry understood he had to walk to the table with all the people in yellow, he moved quietly over and sat down. Next to the other first year, a boy named Justin something or other, and he introduced himself, but then, before he could start really meeting the boy, somebody sat down next to him.

"Wotcher Harry!" It was a girl, lankier and older than him, without one eyebrow, and electric blue hair. "I'm Tonks!"

"Er- Hello, I'm Harry Potter." The girl leaned closer to him and suddenly grew an eyebrow, making Harry jump and almost fall out of his chair. "Hah! It gets 'em every time!"

When the girl started guffawing, a new "HUFFLEPUFF!" was heard from the sorting hat, and a plump boy walked over to the table, sitting away from the girl whose laughing had devolved into a wheezy chuckle. Harry was unsure about the whole situation and felt very uncomfortable when he heard some fiercely whisper "Nymphadora! Stop harassing the first years!"

The girl, named Nymphadora apparently, looked furiously for the person who had confronted her, a handsome boy who looked about the same age as her, who had a cross look on his face. The two stared each other down until the feast began. Harry, thoroughly anticipating enjoying a very good meal, when the girl grabbed him and pulled him towards the boy, who was still looking crossly at the girl. They sat down, and the two started arguing.

"Hello, _**Cedric**_." She said darkly.

"Nymphadora." He replied.

"Don't call me that! It's _TONKS!_"

"Of course I'll stop, just as soon as you stop scaring the first years."

"I'm not scaring them! I'm being friendly! Ask Harry." The girl was smug when she mentioned Harry, but Harry wasn't sure why, she HAD scared him.

"Okay. Harry Potter, right?" The boy addressed him.

"Yes, I'm Harry."

"Did this girl scare you?"

Harry wasn't to sure these people were sane, and decided that if he didn't respond they might leave him alone to eat some food.

"Err... well the name is Cedric, nice to meet you."

* * *

Harry looked at the door that led into the dungeon, hoping that Snape wasn't as bad as Tonks had said he was. She said he was a creepy old lech that peeped down girls shirts, and took away house points for no reason. Harry thought she was exaggerating so he asked Cedric, who told him Tonks was a troublemaker and that she made up the reasons, and if Harry really wanted to avoid trouble, read a few chapters ahead in his potions book, and be ready for anything. Cedric gave Harry one last piece of advice. "Don't be a smart-ass or cocky when you answer his questions and mind your Ps and Qs."

Harry entered the potions room and sat down next to a Ravenclaw, because the rest of the Hufflepuffs looked at him strangely. Harry was rather angry at the girl with the hair that refused to stay the same day-by-day. The people that were in his year were intimidated by the girl, and they would avoid his company. Harry frowned in his seat. The boy next to him introduced himself as Terry Boot. Snape walked into the classroom from his office and began the class.

* * *

Snape looked at his students for this class, the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. Harry Potter was in this class. He looked so much like the elder Potter, and it enraged the man. Snape knew who the boy was, a young troublemaker, taking after his father. The boy was a compatriot of the Tonks girl who never stopped terrorizing his fourth year class. Snape cleared his throat, and-

Harry was sulking over his new situation when Professor Snape began speaking: "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking," he began. "I don't expect you to really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses ... yet I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Zacharias Smith scoffed, and the boy sitting next to him, Justin Finch-Fletchley sunk down into his seat, looking terrified. Harry didn't blame the boy, Professor Snape had a quality about him that silenced the class without threat or warning. He reminded Harry of Professor McGonagall a bit. Snape looked at Smith with a look that could have killed a rat.

"Smith!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

"Err-"

"Well? For such a doubter, I would expect at least a little of the basic knowledge under your belt." At this a bevy of Ravenclaw students raised their hands.

"Let's try again Smith, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"I'm afraid I don't know sir." Smith's smug face had slowly turned into one of sheer embarrassment, and several Ravenclaws had started sniggering behind the hands that weren't raised.

"I am going to be taking five points from you Mr. Smith, unless one of the people in your house can tell me what the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane is." Nobody raised their hands, but Harry realized he knew that from the bit of the glossary he had skimmed through in his potions book. He raised his hand. Snape looked at him with a dark amusement in his eyes, and spoke: "Well well well, Mr. Potter, our resident celebrity! Do you have the answer or were you just trying to save Mr. Smith's skin?"

"No sir, I believe I have the answer." Snape looked a little surprised, but quickly recovered.

"I am waiting, with bated breath Mr. Potter, for you to awe us with your knowledge."

"Well sir- they're the same thing, aren't they? A plant. I think that it's called aconite as well." Snape looked at Harry dully making no indication of any reaction while affirming his correctness.

"Five points from Hufflepuff."

Ernie MacMillan yelped and started to protest, "But sir! You said if a Hufflepuff got it right, you wouldn't take points!"

"I said I wouldn't take away points for his idiocy, I never said I would allow disrespect. Now shut up, and prepare your cauldrons before you lose more points! And Mr. Smith, your potion had better be an 'Outstanding' or it'll be detention. As for the lot of you, adding powdered asphodel to wormwood creates a sleeping potion, notable for a potentness that gives it the nickname of 'The Draught of the Living Dead'. A bezoar, specifically found in a goat's stomach will cure most poisons. Useful information that none of you are writing down!"

The potions class went well, and Harry found that outside of the strangeness of the techniques and practices, potionmaking was very much like cooking, a skill he had honed under the Dursley's roof. His potion was one of three "O's' in the entire class. He left potions with a group of Hufflepuffs congratulating him on his recovery of the points Smith would have lost them. Smith himself was avoiding Harry and all the others, and had left Snape's classroom with a detention. Harry looked at the kids surrounding him, and talking to him and complaining about the cruelty of the loss of points, and smiled, thinking that he might be able to make some friends. Harry walked down the hall laughing and grumbling with his new companions and smiled

* * *

Snape looked at the boy during dinner that night. James Potter's son had undermined the hatred he naturally felt towards the boy. It was a confusing sensation. From what Dumbledore had told him, he lived in his Aunt and Uncle's upper-middle class home in Surrey. But from what the other teachers had seen, the boy wasn't a spoiled brat, or even well liked! Filius Flitwick had told him that the boy was quick to learn the spell 'Wingardium Leviosa' the first in his class. It was the boy's shock at being called bright that had surprised Filius. Minerva had seen the boy's match had turned into a point and was silver at the tip, a feat that no one, except a first year Gryffindor girl had yet to replicate. None of the other teachers had anything bad to say about him, and Pomona Sprout had said he had a regular 'green thumb'. He hadn't caused any trouble, and for the past week had been sitting by himself, occasionally talking to the Tonks girl or the Diggory boy. The boy wasn't a copy of James. He barely existed at this school. Severus waited until after the dinner to walk up to Dumbledore's office.

* * *

Alrighty. Review, give me your thoughts and predictions, 'cause I relish the idea that people like my writing. Also, remember that capability does not equal intelligence!


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